Pagoda

The Pagoda was completed in 1762. The ten-storey octagonal structure is 163 ft high (nearly 50 m).

Architecture and restoration

The Pagoda tapers, with successive floors from the first to the topmost being 1 ft less (30 cm) in diameter and height than the preceding one. The original building was very colourful; the roofs being covered with varnished iron plates, with a dragon on each corner. There were 80 dragons in all each carved from wood and gilded with real gold.

There have been several restorations, mainly to the roofs, but the original colours and the dragons have not been replaced, although the question of replica dragons was discussed in 1979.